Coping with sleep deprivation

[Marthapants01]

Is anyone else coping with feeling on the edge cause of this? I'm trying baby rice and formula as supplements to bf for my 4mo DS but nothing works, I get 2.5 hrs if I'm lucky!

You are not alone. I think most people are on here because they are struggling with lack of sleep. Then there are thousands of others who are just reading and thousands more who don't even know about mumsnet!!
Remember - it will get better, you won't remember in time and it really is only a very short time in your life. Take care and get help if you need it. x

i manage to get by with

co-sleeping
early bedtime for me - now!
a cleaner
easy to prepare meals
a messy house
accepting i will not have the time or energy to do all the things that i want to do
perspective as my ds2 was also a rubbish sleeper but fine now at 3yrs.

mainly it's the co-sleeping.

can you sleep in the day when your dc sleeps? i can't as have older ones.

it will get better! but horrible isn't it. i've had one stretch of 4 hours sleep since august, rest is 1-2 hours.

What are your views on co-sleeping? Or even just feeding the baby in bed and then putting him back in the cot/moses basket (if he's still in your room.) This really helped for the first six months as I would snooze while she was feeding. It all hit rock bottom again when she moved into her room but it might give you some respite for a little while.
x

Like weasle I found the only way to get any sleep was to co-sleep, would that be an option for you?

Also, have a look at Kellymom and did you know there is a thread somewhere in the breast & bottle section for support for the 4 month sleep regression?

Thanks so much for your posts. I am now at my mums with DS for a few days so she can look after us. We have just bought a house that needs a lot of work and DH is having to go it alone because I can't cope with it all.

I have been co sleeping at mums and it does help, not really an option at home as bed not big enough for all three of us. Might have to ask DH to bunk on settee for the next little while....

I wad coping so well and it was all so wonderful, what a u turn! All the groups I'd joined - swimming, parent/child, nct new mums coffee etc. I just can't face now.

Have seen other thread and will have a read through. Xx

Oh and DS only sleeps max 45 mins in the day, if I'm lucky! Today it was 15, as soon as I'd curled up to have a snooze he was awake!

Much sympathy! I've had over a year of an intermittently sleeping baby and insomnia, meaning my sleep has been all over the place and a stretch of more than a couple of hours at a time is rare.

It DOES get better. My DD now sleeps through (intermittently, but still....) and at one time it seemed as if she never would. My own insomnia probably causes me more problems than her random sleep patterns, TBH - and I can tell you that's MUCH more frustrating than being woken up by the needs of your baby!

But basically, by mostly staying positive and realising I can actually function on a lot less sleep than I would have once thought possible means life is generally okay.

Also, me and DH often ended up sleeping in separate rooms for a time so I could co-sleep with DD etc. - we both knew it was only temporary, so that's okay. Sometimes you just have to do what you can to maximise everyone's sleep and remind yourself it IS a phase and when you look back, it will seem like a very short time, even if it feels like forever now.

Hi, sympathy from me too! My ds has been a terrible sleeper since the word go and it's just horrific - you can see why it's used as a form of torture. Like Inmaculada I'm developing a sort of reactive insomnia (gawd I hope it's not going to last a year though!).

Definitely second chucking your dh out so you can do a bit of co-sleeping (sorry dh!). Mine actually spends most nights on the spare bed at the moment and we do shifts.

Plasticspoon, that's exactly what I thought...about the torture! In the two months when DD slept through the night I had a touch of insomnia to begin with but it soon passed so there is hope.
x